Unreal

This is obscene. Something very scary and depressing about making little girls write notes onto bombs that are about to be fired at another country. Very weird.

From Robert Fisk

Long, but worth the read


Paradise Lost: Robert Fisk's elegy for Beirut

Elegant buildings lie in ruins. The heady scent of gardenias gives wayto the acrid stench of bombed-out oil installations. And every where terrified people are scrambling to get out of a city that seems tragically doomed to chaos and destruction. As Beirut - 'the Paris ofthe East' - is defiled yet again, Robert Fisk, a resident for 30 years, asks: how much more punishment can it take?

Published: 19 July 2006

In the year 551, the magnificent, wealthy city of Berytus -headquarters of the imperial East Mediterranean Roman fleet - was struck by a massive earthquake. In its aftermath, the sea withdrew several miles and the survivors - ancestors of the present-day Lebanese - walked out on the sands to loot the long-sunken merchantships revealed in front of them.

That was when a tidal wall higher than a tsunami returned to swamp the city and kill them all. So savagely was the old Beirut damaged that the Emperor Justinian sent gold from Constantinople as compensation to every family left alive.

Some cities seem forever doomed. When the Crusaders arrived at Beiruton their way to Jerusalem in the 11th century, they slaughtered every man, woman and child in the city. In the First World War, Ottoman Beirut suffered a terrible famine; the Turkish army had commandeered all the grain and the Allied powers blockaded the coast. I still havesome ancient postcards I bought here 30 years ago of stick-like children standing in an orphanage, naked and abandoned.

An American woman living in Beirut in 1916 described how she "passed women and children lying by the roadside with closed eyes and ghastly, pale faces. It was a common thing to find people searching the garbage heaps for orange peel, old bones or other refuse, and eating themgreedily when found. Everywhere women could be seen seeking eatable weeds among the grass along the roads..."

How does this happen to Beirut? For 30 years, I've watched this place die and then rise from the grave and then die again, its apartment blocks pitted with so many bullets they looked like Irish lace, its people massacring each other.

I lived here through 15 years of civil war that took 150,000 lives, and two Israeli invasions and years of Israeli bombardments that costthe lives of a further 20,000 of its people. I have seen them armless, legless, headless, knifed, bombed and splashed across the walls of houses. Yet they are a fine, educated, moral people whose generosity amazes every foreigner, whose gentleness puts any Westerner to shame, and whose suffering we almost always ignore.

They look like us, the people of Beirut. They have light-coloured skin and speak beautiful English and French. They travel the world. Their women are gorgeous and their food exquisite. But what are we saying of their fate today as the Israelis - in some of their cruellest attacks on this city and the surrounding countryside - tear them from their homes, bomb them on river bridges, cut them off from food and water and electricity? We say that they started this latest war, and we compare their appalling casualties - 240 in all of Lebanon by last night - with Israel's 24 dead, as if the figures are the same.

And then, most disgraceful of all, we leave the Lebanese to their fate like a diseased people and spend our time evacuating our precious foreigners while tut-tutting about Israel's "disproportionate" response to the capture of its soldiers by Hizbollah.

I walked through the deserted city centre of Beirut yesterday and it reminded more than ever of a film lot, a place of dreams too beautiful to last, a phoenix from the ashes of civil war whose plumage was so brightly coloured that it blinded its own people. This part of the city - once a Dresden of ruins - was rebuilt by Rafiq Hariri, the prime minister who was murdered scarcely a mile away on 14 February last year.

The wreckage of that bomb blast, an awful precursor to the present war in which his inheritance is being vandalised by the Israelis, still stands beside the Mediterranean, waiting for the last UN investigator to look for clues to the assassination - an investigator who has long ago abandoned this besieged city for the safety of Cyprus.

At the empty Etoile restaurant - best snails and cappuccino in Beirut, where Hariri once dined Jacques Chirac - I sat on the pavement and watched the parliamentary guard still patrolling the façade of theFrench-built emporium that houses what is left of Lebanon's democracy. So many of these streets were built by Parisians under the French mandate and they have been exquisitely restored, their mock Arabian doorways bejewelled with marble Roman columns dug from the ancient Via Maxima a few metres away.

Hariri loved this place and, taking Chirac for a beer one day, he caught sight of me sitting at a table. "Ah Robert, come over here," he roared and then turned to Chirac like a cat that was about to eat a canary. "I want to introduce you, Jacques, to the reporter who said I couldn't rebuild Beirut!"

And now it is being un-built. The Martyr Rafiq Hariri International Airport has been attacked three times by the Israelis, its glistening halls and shopping malls vibrating to the missiles that thunder into the runways and fuel depots. Hariri's wonderful transnational highway viaduct has been broken by Israeli bombers. Most of his motorway bridges have been destroyed. The Roman-style lighthouse has been smashed by a missile from an Apache helicopter. Only this small jewel of a restaurant in the centre of Beirut has been spared. So far.

It is the slums of Haret Hreik and Ghobeiri and Shiyah that have been levelled and "rubble-ised" and pounded to dust, sending a quarter of a million Shia Muslims to seek sanctuary in schools and abandoned parks across the city. Here, indeed, was the headquarters of Hizbollah, another of those "centres of world terror" which the West keeps discovering in Muslim lands. Here lived Sayed Hassan Nasrallah, theParty of God's leader, a ruthless, caustic, calculating man; and Sayad Mohamed Fadlallah, among the wisest and most eloquent of clerics; and many of Hizbollah's top military planners - including, no doubt, the men who planned over many months the capture of the two Israeli soldiers last Wednesday.

But did the tens of thousands of poor who live here deserve this act of mass punishment? For a country that boasts of its pin-point accuracy - a doubtful notion in any case, but that's not the issue - what does this act of destruction tell us about Israel? Or about ourselves?

In a modern building in an undamaged part of Beirut, I come, quite by chance, across a well known and prominent Hizbollah figure, open-neck white shirt, dark suit, clean shoes. "We will go on if we have to for days or weeks or months or..." And he counts these awful statistics off on the fingers of his left hand. "Believe me, we have bigger surprises still to come for the Israelis - much bigger, you will see. Then we will get our prisoners and it will take just a few small concessions."

I walk outside, feeling as if I have been beaten over the head. Over the wall opposite there is purple bougainvillaea and white jasmine anda swamp of gardenias. The Lebanese love flowers, their colour and scent, and Beirut is draped in trees and bushes that smell like paradise.

As for the huddled masses from the powder of the bombed-out southern slums of Haret Hreik, I found hundreds of them yesterday, sitting under trees and lying on the parched grass beside an ancient fountain donated to the city of Beirut by the Ottoman Sultan Abdul-Hamid. How empires fall.

Far away, across the Mediterranean, two American helicopters from theUSS Iwo Jima could be seen, heading through the mist and smoke towards the US embassy bunker complex at Awkar to evacuate more citizens ofthe American Empire. There was not a word from that same empire to help the people lying in the park, to offer them food or medical aid.

And across them all has spread a dark grey smoke that works its way through the entire city, the fires of oil terminals and burningbuildings turning into a cocktail of sulphurous air that moves below our doors and through our windows. I smell it when I wake in the morning. Half the people of Beirut are coughing in this filth, breathing their own destruction as they contemplate their dead.

The anger that any human soul should feel at such suffering and loss was expressed so well by Lebanon's greatest poet, the mystic Khalil Gibran, when he wrote of the half million Lebanese who died in the1916 famine, most of them residents of Beirut:

My people died of hunger, and he who

Did not perish from starvation was

Butchered with the sword;

They perished from hunger

In a land rich with milk and honey.

They died because the vipers and

Sons of vipers spat out poison into

The space where the Holy Cedars and

The roses and the jasmine breathe

Their fragrance.

And the sword continues to cut its way through Beirut. When part of anaircraft - perhaps the wing-tip of an F-16 hit by a missile, althoughthe Israelis deny this - came streaking out of the sky over the eastern suburbs at the weekend, I raced to the scene to find a partly decapitated driver in his car and three Lebanese soldiers from the army's logistics unit. These are the tough, brave non-combat soldiers of Kfar Chim, who have been mending power and water lines these past six days to keep Beirut alive.

I knew one of them. "Hello Robert, be quick because I think the Israelis will bomb again but we'll show you everything we can." And they took me through the fires to show me what they could of the wreckage, standing around me to protect me.

And a few hours later, the Israelis did come back, as the men of the small logistics unit were going to bed, and they bombed the barracks and killed 10 soldiers, including those three kind men who looked after me amid the fires of Kfar Chim.

And why? Be sure - the Israelis know what they are hitting. That's whythey killed nine soldiers near Tripoli when they bombed the military radio antennas. But a logistics unit? Men whose sole job was to mend electricity lines? And then it dawns on me. Beirut is to die. It is to be starved of electricity now that the power station in Jiyeh is on fire. No one is to be allowed to keep Beirut alive. So those poor men had to be liquidated.

Beirutis are tough people and are not easily moved. But at the end of last week, many of them were overcome by a photograph in their daily papers of a small girl, discarded like a broken flower in a field near Ter Harfa, her feet curled up, her hand resting on her torn blue pyjamas, her eyes - beneath long, soft hair - closed, turned away from the camera. She had been another "terrorist" target of Israel and several people, myself among them, saw a frightening similarity between this picture and the photograph of a Polish girl lying dead in a field beside her weeping sister in 1939.

I go home and flick through my files, old pictures of the Israeli invasion of 1982. There are more photographs of dead children, of broken bridges. "Israelis Threaten to Storm Beirut", says one headline. "Israelis Retaliate". "Lebanon At War". "Beirut Under Siege". "Massacre at Sabra and Chatila".

Yes, how easily we forget these earlier slaughters. Up to 1,700Palestinians were butchered at Sabra and Chatila by Israel's proxy Christian militia allies in September of 1982 while Israeli troops - as they later testified to Israel's own court of inquiry - watched the killings. I was there. I stopped counting the corpses when I reached 100. Many of the women had been raped before being knifed or shot.

Yet when I was fleeing the bombing of Ghobeiri with my driver Abed last week, we swept right past the entrance of the camp, the very spot where I saw the first murdered Palestinians. And we did not think of them. We did not remember them. They were dead in Beirut and we were trying to stay alive in Beirut, as I have been trying to stay alive here for 30 years.

I am back on the sea coast when my mobile phone rings. It is an Israeli woman calling me from the United States, the author of a fine novel about the Palestinians. "Robert, please take care," she says. "I am so, so sorry about what is being done to the Lebanese. It is unforgivable. I pray for the Lebanese people, and the Palestinians, and the Israelis." I thank her for her thoughtfulness and the graceful, generous way she condemned this slaughter.

Then, on my balcony - a glance to check the location of the Israeli gunboat far out in the sea-smog - I find older clippings. This is from an English paper in 1840, when Beirut was a great Ottoman city."Beyrouth" was the dateline. "Anarchy is now the order of the day, our properties and personal safety are endangered, no satisfaction can be obtained, and crimes are committed with impunity. Several Europeans have quitted their houses and suspended their affairs, in order to find protection in more peaceable countries."

On my dining-room wall, I remember, there is a hand-painted lithograph of French troops arriving in Beirut in 1842 to protect the Christian Maronites from the Druze. They are camping in the Jardin des Pins, which will later become the site of the French embassy where, only a few hours ago, I saw French men and women registering for their evacuation. And outside the window, I hear again the whisper of Israeli jets, hidden behind the smoke that now drifts 20 miles out to sea.

Fairouz, the most popular of Lebanese singers, was to have performed at this year's Baalbek festival, cancelled now like all Lebanon's festivals of music, dance, theatre and painting. One of her most popular songs is dedicated to her native city:

To Beirut - peace to Beirut with all my heart

And kisses - to the sea and clouds,

To the rock of a city that looks like an old sailor's face.

From the soul of her people she makes wine,

From their sweat, she makes bread and jasmine.

So how did it come to taste of smoke and fire?

To anonymous

Let's see what the US reaction is to this...how much do you want to bet it's not the same as what Israel is doing to the Lebanese?

Updates

Well, things haven't really changed. My coworkers in Lebanon have been successfully evacuated as of yesterday. Still waiting on news of the US intern in Egypt who decided to spend a couple of days visiting Beirut while on his summer break. Found his blog here, so he can give you an update of his situation.

I also came across this blog. Interesting stuff. Kind of a view into the mindset of the Lebanese people's views on this matter. I know it's just a small subset, but I honestly think it's representative of the popular mood going on in Lebanon right now. It's funny, but the camps have been split into two very distinct views on this. You have people on the one side who know literally nothing about the whole situation other than some people from Lebanon snuck across the border and captured an Israeli soldier, and you have people who recognize that it's a militant subgroup that in no way represents the majority of Lebanese popular opinion.

I actually had a friend, someone who's generally pretty smart, say to me that "it's their own damn fault. That's what happens when you're a terrorist state." It's funny, everyone's suddenly an expert based on what they see on Fox News.

Fact of the matter is: I have no problem with Israel going after Hezballah. I have no problem with them fighting Hezballah, and I have no problem with them trying to find their missing soldiers. What I do have a problem with, a big problem, is the concept of collective punishment. This morning Israel attacked and killed 11 Lebanese army personnel in their barracks. They've destroyed the airport and are almost exclusively going after the infrastructure. The majority pay for the crimes of the few. How many members of Hezballah have been killed? How many civilians? To hold the Lebanese government responsible is a joke and to hold the Lebanese people responsible will do nothing more than exacerbate the situation in the future.

You know, it's sad, but I remember when the Cedar revolution was taking place, on of Syria's defenses for remaining in Lebanon was that if they left then Israel would immediately come back. Or, that the civil war would start back up.

Most Lebanese saw this for what it was; bullshit. We called Syria's bluff and started up again.

So, for the next 15 months Syria did what it could to attack Lebanese political and opposition figures in the hopes of rekindling those old conflicts. They went after Tuani, they went after countless others in the hopes of starting the fighting anew. When that didn't work, when they saw that the Lebanese people had a deep commitment to prevent new bloodshed, they instructed their proxy army to invite Israel back into Lebanon.

There can be no doubt what Israel's reaction was going to have been, in fact, it was what they counted on. What they needed. Inexperienced national leaders with no military background do not have the capability, nor the political will, to stand up to their militaries and say "do x and y, but not z".

Syria is now proved right in the minds of the Islamist supporters who believed that the Syria - Hezballah alliance was what was keeping Israel out. What "defeated" Israel in 2000.

Lebanon

Well, I've haven't blogged for a while. Combination of work, not enough time, lack of anything to really blog about. Not sufficiently mad about anything...and then Israel attacked Lebanon. Blood boiled a bit.

So, a couple of people have asked me what I think is going on, and here's my views. Ultimately, the bottom line is that "might makes right". Those with a disproportionate amount of power are able to create the rules and can do whatever the want.

If you live under a rock, here's a little of what happened. Basically, on Wednesday Hezballah crossed into Israel and captured two soldiers. They were able to exploit Israel's attention being on the Gaza strip and I guess they caught the Israelis off guard. As you can imagine, it's pretty embarrassing for Israel to have this happen. Extremely embarrassing. They pride themselves on being a big, bad military force in the region, and to have a group of ragged guys break in, destroy a couple of armored vehicles, kill a few troops and the capture two more it's a pretty big deal. So they retaliated.

Now, why are they retaliating so much? The answer, in my mind, is political. Ehud Olmert is the new Prime Minister having succeeded Sharon after Sharon’s stroke/coma. Olmert served in the army for only a couple of years and has made his life as a politician, having previously been the mayor of Jerusalem. As a politician, his job is to make sure that his party wins elections. Since his party is a new party (Kadima being formed after Sharon left the Likud party last year) most Israelis don’t really know where they stand in regards to things like security. When Sharon started the party he did it as the most famous military leader in Israeli history. He had also been known as somewhat of a butcher for his hard tactics back when he served. He was able to reassure people because the one thing political opponents could never do was call him weak on security. Olmert does not have that luxury. So, whereas most people think Sharon would have handled things differently and not been as destructive, Olmert has to show the Israeli people that he’s a badass. So, when something happens in Gaza he destroys Gaza. When something happens in Lebanon, he destroys Lebanon.

Also, whereas Sharon was, irrespective of whether you liked him or not (and I personally hated the guy), a strategic genius militarily, Olmert has no background in this type of thing. So, he asks his army guys what to do and, of course, their response is to blow everything up. Imagine if a US president asked the head of the Pentagon how to wage a war in another country and didn’t have the luxury of having been in the armed services before…not hard to figure out what that looks like, is it?

Background on Hezballah: Hezballah formed in 1982 as a response in the South of Lebanon to Israel’s initial incursion into Lebanon. For the next 18 years Israel had a 20 mile “buffer zone” inside Lebanon where they used to hang out. Since the civil war had effectively destroyed Lebanon’s infrastructure, Hezballah took it upon themselves to fight the Israelis. Since they were backed by Syria and Iran they were able to operate freely inside Lebanon and pretty much do as they pleased. The also did something which was brilliant. Instead of being solely an Israeli attack machine, they built schools throughout the South as well as Hospitals. This ingratiated them with the people of the South because at that time there was no way for the official government to provide any type of services. So, Hezballah became a social movement in Lebanon as well. They have since won a small group of parliamentary seats in the most recent election and are now a formal, albeit ignored and disliked part, of the Lebanese government. I know it’s fashionable to say that Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East (which is debatable, it’s more of a Democratic Theocracy if you ask me) but that’s neither here nor there. They're definitely better about minority representation than some of the others.

As for the Lebanese people’s perspective on the issue, most of us have despised Hezballah for years. They are held in the same regard as the Syrians. The only problem is, after you’ve finished a civil war that has gone on for almost 30 years, at what point does it make sense to send your armed forces to disarm one of the last militias? The Lebanese do not want to see more Lebanese killing other Lebanese. It’s a little bad for moral and there’s a very real chance that it will lead back to another civil war. So, they spend most of their time trying to marginalize Hezballah. Whenever Hezballah starts to feel as though they are being slightly forced aside, they attack Israel, causing Israel to attack Lebanon, reinforcing their support. Round and round it goes. You would think that Israel would figure out one thing, though…this method of attacks hasn’t worked in 60 years. They are no more secure because of it…so why keep doing it? Because it helps them feel strong.

It's ultimately political. It has nothing to do with leadership. It has to do with perception. Notice that military leaders of Israel: Begin, Barak, Rabin and Sharon are the ones who have tried the unimaginable. Begin signed a peace accord with Egypt. Rabin with Arafat and Jordan. Sharon pulled them out of Gaza and tried to pull out of the WB. Barak withdrew from Lebanon. These are all people who had the military background to convince the populace that they are capable of defending them. Unfortunately, Lebanon is once again being used as the political playing field of internal Israeli politics and the regional posturing of Syrian and Iranian contempt for Israel. Don't get me wrong, it's not the only reason. But Olmert got his opening to show he is willing to be a complete madman, and it can be reassuring to the Israelis to know that their leader will sometimes do these types of things in their defense. Does it make it right? No. Reminds me of Nixon during Vietnam - he wanted them to think he was capable of doing absolutely anything to score a victory.

Oooh, the big bad foreigner has my job...or does he?

I go the following as an e-mail forward yesterday and there are some interesting things I would like to point out.

First, read the forward:

RE: This says it all

"Joe Smith started the day early having set his alarm clock (MADE IN JAPAN) for 6am. While his coffeepot (MADE IN CHINA) was perking, he shaved with his electric razor (MADE IN HONG KONG). He put on a dress shirt (MADE IN SRI LANKA), designer jeans (MADE IN SINGAPORE) and tennis shoes (MADE IN KOREA). After cooking his breakfast in his new electric skillet (MADE IN INDIA) he sat down with his calculator (MADE IN MEXICO) to see how much he could spend today. After setting his watch (MADE IN TAIWAN) to the radio (MADE IN INDIA) he got in his car (MADE IN GERMANY) filled it with GAS from Saudi Arabia and continued his search for a good paying AMERICAN JOB. At the end of yet another discouraging and fruitless day checking his Computer (Made In Malaysia), Joe decided to relax for a while. He put on his sandals (MADE IN BRAZIL) poured himself a glass of wine (MADE IN FRANCE) and turned on his TV (MADE IN INDONESIA), and then wondered why he can't find a good paying job in AMERICA.....

Keep this circulating"

Okay, now it didn't transfer properly, so I had to recreate all the coloring. It's basically true to the design of what was sent to me. Anyway, here's the problem with what's listed above. A) It's wrong and B)It's ridiculously xeno- and ethnophobic. Ooh, the big bad foreigners are taking all of the good paying American jobs.

Please. That's absurd. First of all, no they're not. You want to know what the "good paying American jobs" are? It's called being a lawyer, doctor, accountant, working in the financial sector (investment banking). Okay? Those jobs are still here, the only problem is someone likely to agree with the statement above doesn't have the mental capacity to fill any of those jobs. Secondly, unemployment is at around 4.5% nationally. You can find the rates, broken down by state, here. We, as a nation, are not that hard up for jobs right now. Thirdly, those aren't good paying jobs. Who wants to work in the manufacturing sector? I'm not dissing it, I'm just saying most people don't dream of working in a shoe factory.

Now, about the racial aspect of the e-mail. Quit picking on foreigners. We as a nation now have a problem with both foreigners working in their own countries, because jobs get outsourced there for cheap labor, and with foreigners coming to America to work, because they will work for less than an American. The bottom line is Foreigners suck. We want them to stay where they are, but not if they will actually have a job over there. Fact of the matter is, we need all money and jobs here in the US. Only after we are done with them will we permit foreigners to work and eat too.

Now, I find it funny that the author of the e-mail made a few choices. One, he deliberately chose items from foreign suppliers when there is a comparable product here in the US. Why the fuck is he buying imported French wine? This guy has no job!! Buy the cheap shit in a box or some Cali wine. Why did he buy a Malaysian computer? Dude, get a Dell. Made in the USA. So is HP-Compaq.

Why the fuck is he buying a German car? YOU HAVE NO JOB DICKIE. What are you buying a BMW, Porsche or Benz for?????!?!?!??! For crying out loud. Get a Hundai (sp?) or go to Detroit and buy a car from there. Fucking idiot.

Filled it with Gas from Saudi Arabia...oh ohh, those big bad Arabs are at it again. This is the wierdest inclusion of all. First of all, the main exporter of oil to the US is Canada. It's a fact, look it up. Secondly, even if it were Saudi Arabia, what are the options? It's not like there's much of a choice here. No matter what, the manufacturing base in America is not going to figure out a way to magically make the oil appear under our land instead of their sand. What's the use of bitching about it? Oil is a commodity that is found. The labor market chases oil. Unlike cars, t-shirts, jeans, the sectors that chase cheap labor, this is the complete opposite of what is being complained about. But, it includes Arabs which makes it easier for people to draw on their little racist demons.

What's he buying designer jeans for? Again, poor decision. No job? No designer jeans. It's that easy. Also, who's going to hire you if you're wearing jeans and tennis shoes? Idiot. Save up and buy fucking suit (cheap one), some nice shoes (cheap ones) and figure out how to make a resume.

A New electric skillet? Are you kidding me? You're out there trying to figure out what you can do for money and your buying an electric skillet? Moron. You don't deserve a job.

Anyway, here's the response I sent to the person who sent me this:

If you were willing to work 18 hours a day for 15 cents an hour, maybe some of those companies would be willing to manufacture all those items referred to in America. That being said, however, I find it hard to believe that you would want that. Also, maybe instead of blaming the countries you listed below you should blame the manufacturers. There’s a novel idea. Maybe it’s not the fault of the poor people in Indonesia, Malaysia, China, India, Mexico or Sri Lanka who will work for the peanuts. Maybe, just maybe, it’s the fault of the company that is willing to exploit cheap labor around the world. Did that ever occur to you? That those who exploit the poor are slightly more culpable than those who are exploited? Also, if the people of this country were willing to pay a multiple of 4 or 5 for each of those products then domestic based manufacturers would finally have the incentive to base those jobs here. But, so long as investors (made in America) insist on high returns, US corporations will be required to outsource to attract capital. If you have a problem with the system, maybe you should start a grass roots campaign here to “buy American” as opposed to simply sitting there and whining about poor people overseas willing to work for the low paying jobs that most people here wouldn’t take.

Also, interesting that the author mentioned Saudi Arabian oil…First of all, the main exporter of Oil to the United States is Canada. Facts suck sometimes, I know, but you should use them from time to time. Furthermore, unfortunately for us, the majority of Oil in the world is located in the Middle East. It has nothing to do with
outsourcing, jobs or the decline of the manufacturing base in America. It’s simple geography. It’s located over there. Nothing we can do or say will change the fact that it’s still underneath their sand.

Finally, there is plenty of good wine grown and manufactured in America. Why use “French” wine as an example? It’s funny that the author of this piece simply picked and chose the country of origin, ignoring the fact that there are several American companies that make wine, electronics, cars, razors, etc. This e-mail is xenophobic crap that simply permits people to blame other countries for the problems of their
own.

Bottom line is: like I said above, until American investors and consumers actually start caring about source and origin of their products, then it doesn’t really matter. The cycle continues. In the meantime; don’t eat up my inbox with this drivel.

Soze

Heeeeeee'ssssss Baaaaaaaaccccckkkkkk

Well folks, I'm back. Spent a couple of weekends in Vegas. It was cool. Wish you were there, but then again, no I don't.

Today's discussion is going to be about perception. That's right, we're going to be perceiving things today.

Saw this today. Pissed me off something terrible. You know? First of all I want to say a couple of things:

1) This war sucks and is in desperate need of some kind of international attention. I don't care who, but someone needs to get his/her ass down there and stop it.

2) This discussion is going to be about the representation of the two sides in this.

So, reading the article a couple of things jump out to me.

It was sparked in 2003 as Arab militias, which the U.S. says are backed by the government of Sudan, systematically began targeting poor blacks in the region known as Darfur — killing, raping, looting and burning hundreds of villages. Hundreds of thousands are believed to have been killed, and more than 2 million have been displaced.

Those damned Arabs again!!! Every time someone tries to live a happy life in the world those damned A-rabs start doing their thing. I swear to God it's annoying.
Wait, what? Huh? Are you saying that's not what really happened? But this lady said it did. She even started her piece with a nice anecdotal story about seeing the poor, black African children. Awe, those poor kids.

I would like to point out a couple of things about what happens when people read about the tragedy in Darfur, Sudan. Primarily it is described as a conflict between the Arabs and the black Africans. This is to try and link Arabs with racist views of blacks. Now, I'm sure some do, but I can pretty much guarantee that none of them live in the Sudan. You know why? Go on, ask. Please....

Okay, here's why. Most Sudanese Africans are (drum roll please) black themselves. Yes, it's true. There are black Arabs. I swear. For those that don't know me I spent 3 months working in Qatar last year. While there I met a bunch of Sudanese who were working as scorers for us. Now, when I first met them I was surprised. I asked myself "Soze, why are the black Sudanese working in Qatar when at home they are getting slaughtered by the Arabs?" I mean, if you were getting killed by North Dakotans at your home in Maryland, would you escape ethnic cleansing by fleeing to North Dakota? No, that's assinine.

So, I asked one why he was in Qatar. Since the official language of Sudan is Arabic I found it easy to speak with him (slight problem with accents, but who cares). I asked him, politely, what brought him to Qatar. Actually, below is a pretty accurate transcription of the conversation.

Soze: "Hello, how are you doing" (flawless Arabic)
Sudanese Gentleman: "I am good my friend, how are you?"
S: "Fine, hey, what brings you to Qatar?"
SG: "Work my friend, work. There are many troubles in my homeland."
S:"Ahh yes, the Su-of the-Dan, I know it well. But why an Arab
country?"
SG:"Because I am Arab."
S:"But I thought that the war was between the Arabs and the blacks"
SG: (stares at me confusingly) "I may not understand your Arabic, it's
pretty bad, but those of us from Africa are mostly all black"
S: "Hmm, well I'm an idiot."
SG: "yes, you are"
S: "Well, Assalam alakum my brother"
SG:"Assalam alakum to you too"

Well, that was odd. But I didn't believe him. So I googled for pictures of Sudanes Arabs...guess what? They're black. They can be found here, and here.

The people of Chad living along the Darfur-Sudan border are being killed and raped, their villages looted and burned. Every survivor we talked to described Arabs on horseback, shouting racial slurs, and saying:
"You are black slaves."
"This is Arab land, not your land."
"If you stay, Arabs will come to kill you."

I don't know why, but something tells me that the inclusion of the word "black" in the first sentance is purely for our consumption. I am pretty sure that they weren't called "black" in a derogatory manner by another black. But, if you view it as an Arab, who's mental image is one of a slightly sand colored person (no pun intended) then you can play off of peoples assumptions and infer that not only are they evil, murdering, terrorists, but they're also racists too. See, they are actually the ones who are responsible for slavery all those years ago. Not the whites. Granted, Arabs have been living in Sudan since roughly around the year 1000 AD (wikipediad it), but in those 1000 years we still get ot refer to them by their ethnic heritage. Meaning my decendants in 1000 will still be refered to as Lebanese. Correct?
Something tells me that's not right.

Another thing: the inference in the first quote seems to imply that one day the Arabs up and decided to kill the rest. Well, facts have a way of disproving these little theories that people like to come up with to demagogue certain groups: For instance according to Encarta.com:

In 2003 Darfūr rebel groups mounted an armed revolt, accusing Sudan’s Arab government of neglecting the development of the region, largely populated by black African ethnic groups. Government forces and local Arab militias fought the rebels in 2003 and 2004. In the process, the Arab militias reportedly burned villages, destroyed crops, and raped and killed civilians.

Now, this is just Encarta. I decided that since the author of the article quotes the American government that maybe I should see what the government has to say. So, I went to Voice Of America. The VOA says:

Civil war broke out in Darfur in 2003. Complaining of discrimination by Arab Sudanese, African rebels attacked government facilities. Sudanese Arab Janjaweed militia supported by the Sudanese government responded by attacking members of Darfur's African Fur, Masalit, and Zaghawa tribes. A peace agreement was signed this year by representatives from the Sudanese government and the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement.

Now, ultimately it really doesn't matter who starts what. What matters is that people are dying every day. But doesn't an argument lose credibility when one starts embelishing and taking liberties with facts? I think it does.

Do I know you?

Sorry for the delay in posting. I've been backpacking through the Andes for the past week and unable to blog. What's that? No I wasn't? Shit, you got me there...I'm just lazy. Happy now?

Today's blog is going to be shrouded in black. We're mourning here today my friends. News reports today have disclosed that Jesse Helms has vascular dementia. For those of you who don't know what that is, let me explain. See, my dad's a vascular surgeon, so by proxy I'm clinically trained to provide expert medical advice on this. Furthermore, if you remember my Claude Allen post, you should be calling me Doctor anyway. Info on vascular dementia can be found here.

Now, I usually don't pick on people when they're down, but since Jesse probably wouldn't remember it if I did, I figured why not.

My first observation is: duh! We're only now noticing? Let's see, one of the first things that become evident with dementia is loss of short term memory. Well, this guy used to call all black men "Fred". Seriously, I'm not making that up. This guy was a Senator until January 2003!!! Think about that. Thought about it? Good. WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT? First of all, where did Fred come from? Was that the name of the only black man he ever spoke to?

This is, in all honesty, one of the most racist members of the United States Senate, and we're to suddenly feel sorry for him? I'm telling you right now, when the GOP starts coming out and paying "respect" to this man, I'm seriously going to throw up. I mean, even Strom Thurmond rejected his past and spent the final 30 years of his senate career repentant of being a bigot. I'll take that. Jesse Helms? Not so much. Here's an article from the Washington Post from August 2001:

In 1990, locked in a tight race with an African American Democrat, former Charlotte mayor Harvey Gantt, Helms aired a final-week TV ad that showed a pair of white hands crumpling a rejection letter, while an announcer said, "You needed that job and you were the best qualified. But they had to give it to a minority because of a racial quota." Once again, he pulled through.

This guy made a career out of being a frigging asshole. It's depressing. I for one refuse to feel bad for him. He was unrepentant, and now so am I. In fact:

FYOTW:

This weeks FYOTW goes to Jesse "How bout that Klan" Helms. Jesse Helms, former Senator from North Carolina is hereby awarded the FYOTW for his tireless efforts to reign in Civil Rights and Civil Liberties for the past 30 years. As a member of the senate he was one of the proud few to attempt a fillibuster of Martin Luther King day. Fortunately, most of the Senate, including Strom Thurmond, voted him down.
Anything else? Well, in fact there is. I've been reading idowhatiwant's linked people and I found this site. This is a former aid of Jesse's that was nominated for the 4th Circuit court. Now, I don't know what the hell is done on the circuit, but I know I don't want that guy there. So, when his nomination wasn't re-newed by Clinton, Jesse held up the nominations of ALL judges from his state. Nice one there, Jesse. Fucking Dick.

Another aide of Jesse Helms? Well none other than Claude "Why can't I steal?" Allen. That's right folks. Of course, maybe I should call him Fred Allen, seeing as how that's what Jesse probably called him. A question for Claude: What's it like to swallow so much of your pride that you would be willing to permit someone, your boss no less, to BLATANTLY degrade you in front of everyone by calling you a name he likes to call all black people? Was that the source of the self-loathing that caused you to steal? Did you tell yourself that at least he did it to everyone, so you didn't take it seriously?

Seriously, go fuck yourself Jesse.

At a loss

I've seen a lot in my short time. I've been fortunate to travel, see things that most people haven't had the opportunity to see. It's usually been good. But sometimes, you have to take the bad with the good - because in all my life I have never seen something like this.

It's a statue of Britanny Spears giving birth. It's just wierd. The link isn't pronographic or anything, so don't worry about that...but it's...I don't really know how to describe it.

The artist is trying to make a statement about abortion in this too. What his statement is, I have no idea. Nor do I really care. I'm having trouble getting past the sculpture.

It's odd.

and disturbing

I have to go now.